Oil Cooler Question - Its Cold!

[Simon-S14]

Ive got a permacool oil filter relocater kit with an oil cooler in line with it. anyway the lines, filter and fittings all get quite hot.. and you can feel the pressure going thro the lines no worries. esp the ones too and from the oil cooler. However the oil cooler itself is stone cold to touch. even after a few hard laps at the track when oil temps go to 110 degrees its still cold. yet i have oil going too and from it.

wtf?

[lachlanw]

how are the lines arranged ?

must have no oil going through it

[Simon-S14]

i stole this pic... pretty much the same as this. but i think i have it flowing thro the filter first then the core.

http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/8092/oillines.png

Edited February 14, 2011 by Simon-R32

[WHITER33GTS-T]

Double check that they are the right way as my previous workshop hooked the lines to the wrong side of the oil filter and restricted oil flow. End result was a bent crank.

[Simon-S14]

geeze... i just did a track day on sat with no real issues.. only thing i noticed was oil pressure was low on idle after hard laps but i put this down to thin oil

[NYTSKY]

IMO it should go:

Engine out

Cooler in

Cooler out

Filter in

Filter out

Engine in.

Just incase a rock goes through the cooler.

[discopotato03]

If the oil cooler is damaged why would it make a difference which side of the filter its on ?

I'd have thought filter first because if you lose an engine the shrapnel shouldn't get past the filter and get caught in the cooler core , one less thing to replace with the rebuild .

A .

[badhairdave]

Is there a thermostat in there somewhere? If not it shouldn't matter which way it's hooked up, it'll still flow in the configuration you have.

The horror stories are from ones with the 2in-2out style oil filter relocator/thermostat in one types (hks/trust).

Anyway, you've said the lines and fittings up to the core are hot and you can feel the pressure in there so there must be some flow through the thing, or your engine would already be dead from lack of oil.

You don't have an inline thermostat hidden in the guard somewhere that you have forgotten about do you?

[KiwiRS4T]

Can you feel a difference in the lines going into the cooler and coming out? If the line coming out is cooler then the radiator is doing its job. According to Earls you should filter the oil before it goes through the cooler. Will try to upload diagram.

[Beer Baron]

If the oil cooler is damaged why would it make a difference which side of the filter its on ?

I'd have thought filter first because if you lose an engine the shrapnel shouldn't get past the filter and get caught in the cooler core , one less thing to replace with the rebuild .

A .

exactly it makes no difference. and you should always send the oil through the filter first, then the core, then back to the engine. set-ups with the thermostat built into the filter head do exactly that. when cold oil travels from engine, to filter and back to engine, when hot it goes engine to filter to cooler then back to engine.

[Simon-S14]

cheers for the info guys i will will investigate further.

no thermostat either.. its track only so doesnt see low rpm stuff.

[Simon-S14]

as it turns out i mistakingly hooked up the outlet on the block sandwish plate on the centre of the oil filter... and from there it was looped thro the oil cooler.

swapped these two lines around on the oil filter attachment and then ran it and within a few mins the oil cooler had warmed right up... so now its flowing as it should.

hope no damage has been done :S

[WHITER33GTS-T]

as it turns out i mistakingly hooked up the outlet on the block sandwish plate on the centre of the oil filter... and from there it was looped thro the oil cooler.

swapped these two lines around on the oil filter attachment and then ran it and within a few mins the oil cooler had warmed right up... so now its flowing as it should.

hope no damage has been done :S

That sounds like what was done to mine. After a few power runs at 8000+rpm and 475rwkw we checked to see how hot the cooler was.... It was cold.

We drained some oil out and it was full of metal.

Towed car away, had engine pulled out, found the bent crank. Now just waiting to get it rebuild again.

If only I had my tuner fit the engine instead of another local so called "mechanic"

[Simon-S14]

wtf.. what sort of kit did you have on yours?

[WHITER33GTS-T]

Cant think of the brand but worked well on the previous engine when fitted correctly. lol

I now have a big setrab cooler and will be getting bigger lines and new fittings

[Beer Baron]

yeah I can't imagine your engine will be alive. if the cooler was plumbed up so nothing was flowing through it (i'm not sure how btw?) then that means oil was coming out of the filter head area and then going no-where. but if you just have one 'out' hose and one 'in' coming off the engine filter head adapter then it shouldn't matter which way you connect them to the cooler.

oh wait, i see. you hooked the engine 'output' line to the remote filter 'output' instead of the filter 'input'. you could be in trouble, might get away with it. but if the engine is still running then that's a pretty fair sign it will be ok.

[zebra]

Some oil "should" have gone through the over pressure bypass built into the factory oil warmer, if you have removed that or a running an RB20 one you will be in trouble

[Beer Baron]

Would most likely have popped through the oil filters drain back valve too as if oil was being fed through the filter the wrong way the rubber flap that stops oil draining out would been stopping flow but I guess eventually it just would have forced it's way through.

[Trozzle]

sounds to me like it's time to drop the oil and at LEAST run a magnet through it to see what it grabs....

[Rolls]

oil analysis, its like $50 and mainlube.com.au do them, highly recommended, will tell you if you have shagged the bearings or anything.

this is something you want to find out now before catastrophic failure, it could be fine though.